Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today the most
far-reaching and aggressive enforcement action ever undertaken against
organizations involved in illegal intellectual property piracy over the
Internet. Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and the
United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of the
most well-known and prolific online piracy organizations.

“Intellectual property theft is a global problem that hurts economies around the
world. To be effective, we must respond globally,” Attorney General Ashcroft
said. “In the past 24 hours, working closely with our foreign law enforcement
counterparts, we have moved aggressively to strike at the very core of the
international online piracy world.”

Operation Fastlink is the culmination of four separate undercover investigations
simultaneously being conducted by the FBI, coordinated by the FBI Cyber
Division, and the U.S. Department of Justice, coordinated by the Computer Crimes
and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the Criminal Division. As a result
of Fastlink, over 120 total searches have been executed in the past 24 hours in
27 states and in 10 foreign countries. Foreign searches were conducted in
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore,
Sweden as well as Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Operation Fastlink is the
largest multi-national law enforcement effort ever directed at online piracy.
Nearly 100 individuals worldwide have been identified by the investigation to
date, many of whom are the leaders or high-level members of various
international piracy organizations. As the investigations continue, additional
targets will be identified and pursued.

Who are software pirates HURTING? Does pirating kill, sicken, or offend anyone? And what about jobs? When's the last time EA or Microsoft cut back because of a slim turn in the previous quarter?

It's disgusting what America has come to, and has been for a while. If you don't have money you are nothing but a blade of grass waiting to be shaped or cut down at the whim of "the man" behind his lawnmower.

------“The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn. Ok?"